Pop-up TiVo

One of the joys of TiVo ownership is skipping commercials. Will the DVR …

As it often does, TiVo is finding itself caught in the middle between TiVo users and broadcasters. Any TiVo (or DVR) owner will attest to one of the joys of ownership: the ability to quickly skip through commercials. When watching The Simpsons on my TiVo, there's nothing like hitting the fast forward button 3 times and whizzing through 2-1/2 minutes of commercials in a manner of seconds. Predictably, what the consumers love, the content producers and distributors often dislike.

Having been hard at work at brainstorming interactive advertising tools, TiVo has pulled an idea straight from the Internet (and an annoying VH1 show from a few years ago): pop-up ads. When a viewer fast forwards through commercials, an ad will pop up over about one-quarter of the screen. If the viewer gives the ad a thumbs up with the remote, he will be taken to another screen with more information on the product. The advertiser would then get feedback on consumer interest. The initial test is on Series 2 TiVos, but could be rolled out to Series 1 and DirecTV owners as well.

According to TiVo Customer Support Program Manager Bill Dailey in a post on the TiVo Community Forums, the pop-ups will appear only when the advertiser wants them:

The tag can only appear if the advertiser places it there (it's encoded in the commercial itself). No hijacking involved -- the advertiser uses tags to communicate the message of the commercial in an alternate way for people who are fast forwarding though it.

For now, the pilot is with a single movie studio, but could be expanded if it works out well. Advertising is expected to account for a growing chunk of TiVo's revenues, and the recent deal with Comcast calls for Comcast-flavored TiVos to feature interactive video ads in programming menus and other places. With TiVo's pop-ups, you get a basic, static image of an ad that you are fast forwarding through. Fast forwarding speed is not changed, and there's no sound. It seems like a win-win situation to many, but others fear the slippery, slippery slope.

Since the invention of the remote control and VCR, broadcasters have been looking for ways around viewers' dislike of commercials. Heavily reliant on advertising as their primary source of revenue, they have been casting about for solutions. Ideas floated have ranged from in-program advertising (beyond "clever" product placement) to increasing the number of programs available via pay-per-view. One TV executive even went as far as to call the act of skipping advertisements theft, saying sitting through inane car commercials with Sting soundtracks is part of a "contract with the network."

Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Televisions ads are priced and sold by the possibility that an audience will view them, not the fact that they will. For instance, Nielsen ratings will estimate that 14 million people watch this show or that show, and those stats are used to calculate advertising fees. No advertiser in their right mind believes that 14 million people will watch their ad. After all, people channel surf, get up and do stuff, talk amongst themselves, pick their noses — or whatever — during commercial breaks. Television advertising is based on a structure where advertisers are hoping people watch the ads, and there task is to make ads more enjoyable to watch, or certainly more tolerable.